Day 23, Blessings

August 5

246.8 down, 1939.1 to go 

The morning started out cold, probably our coldest morning yet. It was the first time we started out on the trail in the morning wearing our jackets. Of course we'd take them off ten minutes later, but it was too cold to start without them. We breaked midway through our day, 8.2 miles in, at Bemis Lean To. Bemis Lean To is located after Little Bemis, but before Bemis Mountain. (Again with the "little" names for mountains.) My knee was hurting pretty bad, seems like an overuse injury. It was a bit harder to get going again after stopping, but once we got warmed up again it was alright.

Unitic was slightly behind us, since his ankle and knees were hurting him pretty badly. Before I get into the story about our little finance argument, let me mention our first trail argument, regarding the amount of salted and honey roasted peanuts we bought for resupply in Monson. I thought we were splitting them evenly, NotYet thought he got more honey roasted and I got more salted. After bickering for a few minutes on the trail about who got the salted peanuts, we stopped and laughed and realized how dumb it was we were fighting about peanuts. Haha.

I had been stressed out for a couple days regarding our finances. After paying all of our bills in advance, we were left with less money than we thought we'd start with. We stopped and prayed that God would help us to put our trust in him, that he would open doors for us. He provided for thousands with a few loaves of bread and some fish. I realized that we are climbing all these mountains God put here. All of the views. The birds we see along the trail eating berries, the squirrels, the moose, the trees and plants growing. He puts them here and provides for them, who is to say how he will or will not provide for us? Either way, if we are able to finish the trail or not, it will not help us to worry. This is an adventure! After praying, we continued on to Old Blue Mountain.

We were planning a longer day (17 miles) intentionally to make it to a campsite near the road by Andover, so we could be picked up early the next morning to enjoy a zero day. However, when we got to the summit of Old Blue Mountain, we called the folks at The Cabin, in Andover, to reserve a spot for the next day and ask for a ride, Earl, the owner, told us that they had an appointment the next day and wouldn't be able to pick us up in the morning. He suggested he could pick us up that night and he'd give us a discount. NotYet said, "Well, your prices are already pretty low, so what kind of discount could you give us?" Earl told us he'd give us two nights for the price of one. Not more than fifteen minutes after praying for God to provide for us, he shows us that he is providing for us. How incredible.

Unitic caught up to us a few minutes later and we started our steep 2.8 mile descent to the road. Very tough on the knees. I had to stop briefly after feeling a sharp shooting pain on my knee. I rested for a bit and took my pack off and felt better. The views were incredible on the way down, when we got a break in between trees. Locals call the mountain "Ol' Blue." There was a handmade, carved wooden sign hanging on a tree on the way down that inferred the mountain as an "Ol' Something Derogatory" (Paraphrasing here, of course.) We stopped and laughed for a minute, between foot long steps down that just made the knees ache and putting our trekking poles down to use our hands to climb rocks. We told Earl we'd be at the bottom at 8:30. Half way down, we realized we'd be there a lot sooner than 8:30, but figured we'd wait since there'd be no service to call him and let him know. It was just before 8 when we got there and Earl was waiting in his pickup truck for us. He knew it wouldn't take us that long.

On the way home, Earl stopped by the Andover General Store so we could pick up anything we needed for the night. Unitic got a six-pack, we got small saran-wrapped sausage and cheese -- a treat! Earl called his wife Margie on the way home to let her know we would want leftovers when we got there. There was no tupperware filled with leftovers waiting for us when we got there, but instead a table with three place settings, spaghetti that had just been cooked for us, sauce, potato salad, fresh salad, corn on the cob, biscuits and lemonade. Wow, did we feast! They are so incredibly kind and welcoming. The perfect place to take a zero. And look how God provides!

View from Ol' Blue. Doesn't look like much since the trees on the summit were high but the rolling hills around were beautiful!